The Adam Project star Walker Scobell has been cast as the new Percy Jackson in the upcoming live-action adaptation of the book series.
Young actor Walker Scobell recently made his breakthrough in the 2022 film The Adam Project, where he played the younger version of Ryan Reynolds’ character. And it looks like the actor is headed straight to Camp Half-Blood as American author Rick Riordan was beyond thrilled to introduce him to fans as the new Percy Jackson of the upcoming series. The author described Walker Scobell as an incredibly talented young man who blew them away with his audition tapes for the role of Percy.
According to Riordan, they were fortunate enough to have Scobell audition for the series before The Adam Project came out, and upon seeing the movie, they definitely knew that Scobell was the right choice to embody the heroic character of Percy Jackson. “It was obvious to me and the rest of the team that Walker had the perfect mix of comedic timing, sweetness, rebelliousness, snark, and heroism to embody our hero Percy Jackson,” Riordan said in a post on his website.
Turns out that Rick Riordan himself was the one who personally delivered the exciting news to the actor. On January 28, via Zoom call, Riordan personally told Walker that he has been chosen to play the lead role of Percy Jackson, to the young actor’s genuine surprise. Scobell, who is an avid fan of the Percy Jackson series, was even seen wearing a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt during the Zoom call.
Riordan also shared how he couldn’t help but feel quite emotional during the magical moment, as it brought the author back to all the waiting and hard work that had been poured into the series. “Okay, this is real. This is worth all the waiting and the hard work. This project is going to be amazing,” he said. The author also shared how hard it was to keep the information to himself because of how excited he was to be sharing the good news with the fans.
And to fans’ delight, the author also shared that since January, they have been getting to know Walker and his family. Walker has also already done different script and chemistry readings with other candidates for the two leads in the series, Annabeth and Grover, whose roles are getting close to being finalized and shared with the public!
Rick Riordan is looking forward to working with Scobell as he builds the actor to be part of the dedicated, supportive, and enthusiastic community of the people who are working on the project, “The excitement is so thick you could cut it with a Celestial bronze sword.” Riordan also voiced his excitement for the actor himself, as he prepares himself for the role through working on his swordplay, holding his breath underwater, and of course stunts training. Riordan said, “I’m excited he’s doing all that and I don’t have to, but I will definitely be there cheering him on every step of the way!”
While the original Percy Jackson, Logan Lerman, will always have a special place in our hearts, Riordan knows that this is the right time to introduce our new Percy Jackson, a young Walker Scobell, who even considers himself a huge fan of the Percy Jackson book series, as the perfect casting for the role.
Riordan also reassured the fans that there will be more surprising news coming soon, and asked them to give Walker a huge Camp Half-Blood welcome, and promised that he is definitely going to surpass fans’ highest expectations from the very first line of the series.
Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series will be streaming on Disney Plus soon.
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